READERS CHOICE AWARDS RETAIL/SERVICES
2 0 0 9 Special section inside San Diego Community Newspaper Group
THURSDAY, APRIL 29, 2010
www.SDNEWS.com Volume 15, Number 33
Putting it in park City tries to recover parking funds BY ADRIANE TILLMAN | VILLAGE NEWS A pot of money to alleviate parking problems in La Jolla has two decades of history, and Promote La Jolla’s alleged mishandling of $65,323 of those funds has brought the issue back into the foreground. The city is suing Promote La Jolla — the former manager of the Village’s Business Improvement District — to recover $65,323 earmarked for parking, which was seized by a bank when Promote La Jolla defaulted on a loan. The city wants to return the money to its rightful place — the La Jolla Parking & Transportation Fund — created in the 1990s from developers’ fees paid to mitigate congestion their projects would bring. Developers had paid into the fund throughout the ’70s and ’80s. Today, the city is sitting on approximately $300,000 in the transportation fund, waiting for the Village to initiate ideas to use the money to alleviate its parking problems. In the meantime, the city wants to recover the money Promote La Jolla allegedly squandered.
“Things need to settle down before people have an interest in revisiting [the parking problem].” JOE LA CAVA La Jolla Coastal Access & Parking Board The discussion surrounding the transportation fund was derailed by controversy over paid parking and the downfall of Promote La Jolla, according to Joe La Cava, president of the Coastal Access & Parking Board, formed to manage the funds in 2004. “Things need to settle down before people have an interest in revisiting it,” La Cava said, adding there aren’t as many cars in the Village with the economic downturn. “Right now there doesn’t seem to be much motivation. You have to let the problem build-up to create a sense of urgency.” In the past eight years, the Coastal Access & Parking Board has used the transportation fund to encourage employees to ride the bus to La Jolla or to park in the underground parking garages. The board purchased monthly bus and parking passes and sold them to employees at a discount. In the late 1990s, the city’s Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) spent $10,000 from the fund to study the feasibility of establishing a park-and-ride for La Jolla, shuttling visitors from a remote lot to the Village. The study showed the idea was not feasible, said Martin Mosier, a member of the board at the time. “The study said if MTS can’t make money on a bus, how can the coastal access board do it?” Mosier said. Mosier believes installing parking meters is the best solution to get employees’ cars off the streets, and the only way to guarantee a steady stream of income to subsidize other programs. “If all the parking spaces are free, then they will all be gone,” Martin said. “The only way to do SEE PARKING, Page 4
La Jolla Elementary School was transformed into a scene from “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” on Friday, April 23 when students probed the strange and magical world of science and chocolate. The students also milked a cow, courtesy of Sage Mountain Farm in Aguanga, Calif. It was the scene of the school’s annual family science night, and there was plenty to see and experience. TOP LEFT: Zach Albence (from left), Cameron Bolour and Hudson Liu inspect moldy food through a microscope. TOP RIGHT: Chloe Dore Gomes
da Costa attempts to milk the cow. BELOW LEFT: Aidan Keefe rates the smell, texture and taste of dark, milk and white chocolate chips. A researcher from the UCSD Medical School had lectured about the health effects of the different types of chocolate. BELOW RIGHT: A La Jolla High student shows how salt in pickles conducts electricity. BOTTOM RIGHT: Ruaida Alkafaji (from left), Anna Maria Intriago Cedeno and Lucca Simpson learn how to fit an egg into a bottle. Photos by STEPHEN SIMPSON